MacKinnon, Makar both miss out on winning Ted Lindsay Award

The Colorado Avalanche’s superstar duo of Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar made history back in April when they were both announced as finalists for the Ted Lindsay Award. MacKinnon won the award in the 2023-24 season, and was looking to become just the seventh player in league history to win the award in back-to-back seasons.

While the odds were in their favor to bring the award back to the Mile High City, the votes were not, as Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov was announced as the winner on Wednesday.

Congratulations to Nikita Kucherov, who takes home his second career #TedLindsayAward with the players’ vote.

The @TBLightning forward led the NHL in points, assists, primary assists ​and power-play points this season: https://t.co/E3CdPrc1yI #NHLAwards pic.twitter.com/4X7IaJFXOK

— NHLPA (@NHLPA) June 4, 2025

The trophy is awarded “to the most outstanding player in the NHL, as voted by fellow members of the NHLPA.” While all other awards are voted by either the Professional Hockey Writers Association or the general managers of the league, this is the only one voted on by the players.

MacKinnon or Makar were looking to bring the trophy back to Colorado for the third time after MacKinnon’s win in 2024 and Joe Sakic’s win back in 2001.

MacKinnon put together another career year in 2025 after winning the Hart Memorial Trophy a season ago. With 116 points in 79 games, he led the Avalanche to another 100-point season. While his goal-scoring numbers were way down from his one-of-a-kind year in 2024, it was still his third consecutive year of recording at least 110 points individually. He led the Avalanche in goals in the postseason (7) and was tied for the most assists (4). His 11 points were by far the most out of any player in the burgundy and blue in the playoffs.

Makar is still the favorite to win the James Norris Memorial Trophy as he hopes to at least add one piece of hardware to his wealthy trophy collection. He led all defensemen in points (92), goals (30) and assists (62) this season, and also became the first defenseman to score 30 goals in a season since 2009. On top of that, this was his second consecutive season tallying at least 90 points, making him just the sixth defenseman in the history of the league to hit that mark at least two times.

For Kucherov, this is the second time he’s won the award for the Lightning after first doing so in 2019. He also had a phenomenal season with 121 points as he led Tampa Bay to yet another postseason appearance, and the other players around the league thought that he was more deserving of the award than the Colorado duo.

The rest of the NHL Awards will be announced at 4 p.m. MDT on June 12 before Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers. Makar is the favorite to bring home the Norris, while MacKinnon was snubbed from even being a finalist for the Hart.

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